Recent Comments

1. about 8 years ago on Frazz

   Since when did Frazz get his right arm tattooed?

2. over 8 years ago on Mom's Cancer

   In many ways, my late wife’s story parallels Brian’s mom’s battle. Although my wife had never smoked, she was diagnosed with metastatic Stage IV lunger cancer and went through the same chemotherapy and brain radiation as Brian’s mom, with many of the same side effects. However, the steroids my wife took to keep the dying brain lesions from swelling after being zapped with whole brain radiation also served to suppress the symptoms of oncoming pneumocystis pneumonia. Eventually, the cancer would have taken her, but fortunately the pneumonia brought a quick end that was without any suffering or discomfort. Brian’s mom was indeed fortunate to have such a supportive family for her final years.

3. about 9 years ago on Mom's Cancer

   Should not the top middle panel, in which it appears that the contrasting agent is being injected, be positioned first, before Mom is placed in the MRI tube?

4. about 9 years ago on Mom's Cancer

   If “never smoker lung cancer” was considered a separate kind of cancer, it would rank fifth as a cause of cancer death, far less than lung cancer in general, and only slightly lower than colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and pancreatic cancer, but more than all other types of cancer. Most lung cancers, especially among never smokers, are not diagnosed until they have metastasized to other organs (deemed Stage IV lung cancer). Median survival is 8 months, 5 year survival is practically zero. Yet the funding for lung cancer research is a fraction that of other cancers because lung cancer is so sullied by its association with smoking. But nobody ever said life is fair.

5. about 9 years ago on Mom's Cancer

   Speaking from the perspective of having lost a wife to metastatic lung cancer who NEVER touched a cigarette her entire life, I’m trying not to take umbrage at what some may see as calling lung cancer patients deserving of their disease. True, most lung cancer cases are probably caused by smoking, but 18% of lung cancers are in people who never smoked. When it comes to research funding for lung cancer, with breast cancer getting over five times the federal funding for lung cancer, the never smokers are paying the price for those who chose to smoke.

6. about 9 years ago on Speed Bump

   Tinnitus.

7. over 9 years ago on Mom's Cancer

   This procedure only addresses the lesions that were found during the brain MRI. The problem is that there are likely many more tumors in the brain that are microscopic in size, too small to be seen in the MRI image. Whole brain radiation can treat those, but zapping the entire brain is not without serious risks. I wonder if Brian’s mom will be visiting the radiation oncology office again for that!

8. over 9 years ago on Mom's Cancer

   Truly, the procedure has many similarities to a Boris Karloff movie, including that the patient wears a tight, custom-fitted mesh mask marked with the reference points for the beam.

9. over 9 years ago on Mom's Cancer

   Indeed, about 18% of lung cancers occur in those that never smoked, including my late wife, who had never touched a cigarette her entire life, but at the age of 62 was diagnosed with metastatic non-small cell lunger cancer. Lung cancer often has no symptoms until it metastasizes and causes a problem somewhere else. By then it is Stage IV with a one year survival rate of less than 15%, a five year survival rate of less than 2%.

10. over 9 years ago on Mom's Cancer

    Truly an incredible coincidence, but your comic is making its first appearance on the same date that exactly four years ago my wife of 30 years passed away from metastatic lung cancer. She too was in her early sixties, but she never smoked. My wife fought valiantly for a year after the initial diagnosis of Stage IV lung cancer. I will be hoping that your character prevails over this most insidious form of cancer.